This invention relates to coke quench car pollution control systems, and more particularly to a system which is self-contained.
The manufacture of coke typically involves heating coal in a battery of enclosed oven cells. When the coking process is completed, the coke is pushed sequentially from each cell through a coke guide and into a quench car mounted on tracks adjacent the coke oven. After loading, the car is transported to a coke quencher which may, for example, take the form of a quenching tower where the coke is cooled by spraying it with water.
Numerous systems have been devised for capturing emissions which occur during the coke pushing operation. One such prior art system includes the hood positionable over the quench car and having an inlet adapted to be coupled to the coke guide. One common type of gas cleaning apparatus for such prior art systems generally includes an elongate duct in general parallelism to the coke ovens and disposed on the opposite side of the quench car tracks. In order to couple the movable quench car hood to the stationary gas collecting duct, a flexible coupling was required. In one such system the upper portion of the duct is closed by an elongate flexible belt and the quench car outlet is adapted to elevate a short section of the belt and couple to the open upper portion of the duct as the quench car moves therealong. In this manner, a sliding coupling was provided between the quench car and the stationary duct.
These types of prior art coke car emission collection systems were relatively expensive to install and did not lend themselves to being retro-fitted into existing coke oven systems because a substantial amount of space was required to accommodate the elongate duct.